The 600 Block - Saint Petersburg, FL

4/30/14

I figure I should update, since doing so will hopefully motivate me to press forward. I tend to take on way too many personal projects and get frustrated easily rather than finishing one (or a couple) of things at a time. I'm struggling a bit with composition but am still working on finishing up the buildings first. I'm adding color first then will work on composition, then custom brushes, tweak color, then texture.

I love doing buildings though... these are very much in progress, but here's an update.

I am finally getting started on this project! I have been super intimidated because I'm not a professional illustrator and my drawing skills are, for now, only a notch above rudimentary, but I have been bouncing ideas around in my head forever and I think finally landed on something I love.

I was originally working on the Saturday Morning Market that happens here in St. Pete from November-May, but since there are other farmer's markets in this class, I wanted to branch out a bit. Plus I forgot to save what I was working on and I lost like 95% of my progress on the farmer's market project. I know better than that... so perhaps I will return to it someday, but alas, not today.

Here is a website on the 600 block:

sixhundredblock.com

St. Petersburg has all these cool little pockets of local shops, boutiques, galleries, restaurants, etc. This particular area hosts an Indie Market every month, and it's a neat place to walk around and find some cool stuff or just take in people interacting in this super cool city. There's also a lot of really neat architecture and details, like on the Crislip Arcade and State Theatre.

I am inspired by these cityscape and building illustrations that I always save like crazy!

Some rough sketches... I basically did the whole block on several pages in my sketchbook and will be compiling them in a sort of winding composition, highlighting the most interesting and iconic buildings/businesses in the area.